Working it Out...

These two South Pasadena parrots had been having quite a squabble.  The one on the right had been chasing after the one on the left for most of the morning.  The one on the left had no problem divebombing and pecking the one on the right.

After about twenty minutes of talking it out on this palm frond, they seemed to patch things up.  Whew!  I hate it when the neighbors fight.


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The Parrot Whisperer

Last year I had the great fortune of meeting and chatting with Mark Bittner. (Read my interview with him here.) You may remember him as the subject of the award winning 2005 documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

I've often wondered if South Pasadena had its very own parrot whisperer. You know, a special human being closely connected to our own flock.

I have my answer!

Take a look at the parrot magnetism above. Ever wonder what happens to the little baby parrots who fall out of those nests waaaaaaay up high in the trees? Well, if they're fortunate enough to be discovered by Yvonne, they get rehabilitated and given the all around royal parrot treatment. Here, Yvonne hangs out with Lucky, her latest rescue. Lucky screeched at me when I got too close to the great human love of his life, but he was kind enough to let me photograph him from a few feet away. (Finally! I managed to grab a shot of one of South Pasadena's parrots up close and in focus!)

Friendship. It's for the birds -- and us, too.

A Shot of a Shot

My neighborhood doubled as a movie set again last week. This time, it was for Burt Wonderstone, a film featuring Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell. (No, Mr. Carrey and Mr. Carrell weren't around for this particular location. If they were, your faithful blogger might have been arrested for stalking.)

A crew of about 200 took our street back in time to the early 80s -- complete with an old Pinto and a lot of looooong General Motors sedans. It was like being transported back to my youth, except without the Air Supply and mullets. (No, I didn't shoot the cars. Why should I when I can get these cars anytime I want?)

Here, everyone waited while a tracking shot was set up. After about a half day of shooting, they packed up, took their dolly and went home. (Yes, I've always wanted to make that bad pun!)

Blurry Parrot

I give up.  

I told myself I wouldn't post one of my close-up wild parrot shots until I actually managed to get one that was tack sharp.  

It's impossible! I either need a new telephoto lens or a steadier hand.  (Or both.)  

Something for Nothing

One of my home's previous owners planted these roses in the front yard. Despite my absolute neglect, continued bludgeoning from Little Bit's soccer ball and a most unseemly bit of abuse by a local tom cat, the roses bloom with a vigor unrivaled even by the most pampered of Huntington Garden's posies.

I figure, if a rose goes to all that trouble to show off, the least I can do is take its picture.

Showing Off

Take a look at who was strutting around my neighborhood yesterday. Neighbors told me that a group* of peacocks live and breed somewhere in Monterey Hills, but nobody remembers seeing one below. The consensus was that this one is a young male -- too little to have grown the showy tail plumage yet but old enough to take off on an adventure.

Just when I thought South Pas couldn't get anymore magical. I mean, really now ... we already have wild parrots. But wild peacocks, too? I love this town!

(*A cursory look at the internet tells me that a group of peafowl is called a muster or an ostentation. Ostentation? Perfect!)

Best of Times/Worst of Times

The macro view of the world focuses on crisis while the micro level brings happy views of comfort, fun and friends, of birthday parties and polka dot dresses, of backyard cookouts and big smiles -- the things that have always sustained people through stormy weather.

Lately, our shock-value media takes a grim and alarmist view of the world -- nattering daily about the burgeoning economic disaster like a sadistic doctor yelling, "this is going to REALLY HURT! And I mean REALLY REALLY BAD!!!" as he preps a patient for unavoidable surgery. How I wish for more wise and even-keeled journalists like Alistair Cooke, an Englishman who spent a lifetime reporting on the American experience. He was once described as a modern day Alexis de Tocqueville -- an outsider whose unique perspective offered insight into our nation's psyche.

"In the best of times," Cooke said decades ago, (when another era's people faced another disaster,) "our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly, that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the 1st place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby."

Or to toss stuffed animals in the air with a multicolored parachute. Life is good. (And when you get right down to it, happiness really isn't that expensive.)

Action!

The Cold Case production company descended upon our neighborhood at 6:00AM this morning with all the animation and excitement of a carnival. Even though I’ve been around the entertainment industry for 20 years, I still get a little jolt when I see the dream machine at work.

Dozens (and dozens) of crew members wheeled in equipment, set props, bundled electrical cables along the sidewalks, set up sound boards and placed spot lights. Within no time our little Southern California village was transformed into Philadelphia, 1968, complete with costumed extras and at least a dozen vintage muscle cars. Around 2:00PM, the team was ready for the explosion scene.

“Wow,” I said to my daughter as we stepped out on the porch to watch, “They really have thought of everything.”
“Excuse me,” a crew member interrupted, “May we borrow your hose?”

Well, maybe not everything.

By 4:00PM we were offered free ice cream with the cast and crew and by 11:00PM, the last truck had pulled out. That’s show business...

Concrete Rose

Neighboring Pasadena is known as the rose city, but this mysterious South Pasadena Rose fascinates me. I step over her name every time I take a walk in my neighborhood and with each crossing I wonder who she was and when she made this defiant mark in the sidewalk cement. I think names written in concrete are wonderful things – and for whatever reason, South Pasadena sidewalks have a lot of them. Unlike cemetery markers – so final, so respectful, so literal – these signatures are a testament to a city’s playful, chest-thumping whimsy. Whoever Rose is or was, one day she leaned down, picked up a stick and left this statement that she was here, a part of this place. Right on, Rose! The next time I see a patch of wet cement, I’ll be hard pressed not to do the same thing.

Wild Garden

Sometimes it pays to peek over a neighbor’s fence. No well-watered impatiens, no mulched beds or pruned rose bushes, not even a hardy geranium for a splash of pink. Those are all nice, but so is this effusion of carefree summer green. We gardeners edit -- but Mother Nature has fun with stream of consciousness landscaping.

Personally, I think the trees upstage the actors...

When you live in the greater Los Angeles area, you get used to seeing film and TV crews. They’re everywhere. And it makes sense -- this is the world entertainment capital, and the region has some very notable scenery. Think about how many times you’ve watched a movie or show and seen the Santa Monica Pier or Rodeo Drive or the Pacific Coastal Highway.

But what happens when a production wants to shoot something that doesn’t look like Los Angeles? (I’ll sidestep discussing the trend of moving production jobs from Los Angeles to cheaper Toronto… ) What happens when a production needs a nearby location that looks, well, far away from Southern California? Perhaps even far away from the present time?

Hello South Pasadena!

The South Pasadena Film Office promotes our town as “Anywhere, USA” complete with a vintage art deco high school and “many tree lined streets without palm trees.” Not only that, it’s a one-stop shop for filmmakers: the police, public works and fire department are all handled by the Film Liaison. The film permit forms are even available online.

South Pas has quite a resume: Gone With the Wind, Legally Blonde 1 and 2, Back to the Future, The Player, The Terminator, Halloween, Bruce Almighty, Desperate Housewives, Flags of Our Fathers, Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Landscapers Challenge! (Just to name a few.) New productions roll in every month.

That's a pretty great career. Especially considering South Pasadena is waaaaaaaay over 30...

Is that Buddy Holly playing on the radio?

Film students shot scenes in our neighborhood last week. Their piece was set in the mid 1950s. It was fun to see the cast members milling about on the sidewalk in white bobby socks and swirly poplin skirts. Of all the vintage cars they used, this one was my favorite.

Coming to South Pasadena --and many other areas of the San Gabriel Valley -- feels a little like time travel to those of us who grew up in cities that boomed in the 60s and 70s. I don't think I'll ever stop noticing the gorgeous turn-of-the-century houses here. Craftsman, Victorian, Transitional, Tudor, Spanish -- all nestled among hundred year old trees. When you add a couple of old cars, it really feels like you've stumbled into another era.

Sky. Trees. Happy day.

Our garden is a lovely place to lie down and look up. I adore those wonderfully ubiquitous palm trees against that almost always blue sky.

I read something last year about the palm trees eventually dying out in Southern California. I hope it's untrue because images like this will always make me feel like I did when I first arrived in Los Angeles 20 years ago: giddy, hopeful, expansive, and in love with all those silly topknot trees waving above the streets of this city. To me they are reminders that LA doesn't take itself too seriously.

That's one of the main reasons I love it here.

And if whimsical trees aren't enough to make you smile, just see the clouds through the eyes of my 3 year old daughter. (She prompted me to snap this picture.)

"Look, Mommy. There's a happy face right up there in the sky!"

Indeed.